# About Dialing Plans

## Dialing Plans for Mailboxes

The dialing plan is a string of nine elements. The elements in the string define, by position, the number of digits in valid mailbox numbers. The first element shows the number of digits allowed for mailboxes that begin with 1. The next element shows the number of digits allowed for mailboxes that begin with 2, and so on up to mailboxes that begin with 9. Each element is separated by commas.

If you change any element, you must re-enter the entire mailbox dialing plan.

Valid mailbox numbers can be up to 11 digits long, so valid numeric elements can be 0 (zero) through 11. When an element is zero, no mailboxes beginning with that digit are allowed.

Example 1: if your dialing plan is 0, 3, 3, 7, 3, 3, 3, 3, 10, the NuPoint Voice application interprets the string as follows:

Digit | Element | Interpretation
--- | --- | ---
1 | 0 | No mailboxes start with 1. Mailbox numbers 1, 11, 111, etc. are all invalid.
2 | 3 | Mailboxes starting with 2 are three digits long. Valid mailbox example: 211
3 | 3 | Mailboxes starting with 3 are three digits long. Valid mailbox example: 347
4 | 7 | Mailboxes starting with 4 are seven digits long. Valid mailbox example: 434-1234.
5 6 7 8 | 3 3 3 3 | Mailboxes starting with 5, 6, 7, and 8 are three digits long. Valid examples are: 523, 617, 727, 855.
9 | 10 | Mailbox numbers starting with 9 are ten digits long. Valid mailbox example: 912-456-7778.

The default dialing plan is 3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3 meaning all mailboxes have 3 digits that may start with any digit from 1-9.

You can also substitute a dial plan type for length of extension as follows:

## Dialing Plans for Server Features

Other entries allowed in the dialing plan allow other NuPoint Unified Messaging server features. The following table lists these entries for your reference.

Element | Explanation
--- | ---
0-11 | Length of the mailbox. Zero means none may start with this number.
V | Variable number (1 through 11) of digits; server uses timeout to determine end of mailbox number
M | Analog networking (AMIS) mailboxes leading digit
A | Dial-by-Name (ASCII) leading digit
T | Call placement leading digit
N(n) | Networked mailboxes, (n) = mailbox number length. NV (variable number length) is also acceptable
P(n) | Network mailbox with prefix used, (n) = mailbox length including prefix digit

If the extension numbers at your site use too many starting digits to implement all these capabilities in your dialing plan, you can use the optional star prefix dialing plan, described below.

## Optional Star Prefix Dialing Plan

The standard dialing plan tells the NuPoint application how to handle DTMF digits 1 through 9. If you have a conflict (for example, if you have extensions starting with digit 3 and you have also assigned Dial by Name to digit 3), you can implement the optional Star Prefix dialing plan. This allows multiple features using the same digit entry with the star (*) key.

You can implement several features with the optional dialing plan, as shown in the table below.

Optional Dialing Plan Choices | Counterpart in Regular Dialing Plan
--- | ---
Dial-by-Name | A
Analog Networking | M
Networking without prefix | N
Networking with prefix | P
Call Placement | T

For example, your regular Dial-by-Name dialing plan might look like this: 0,0,3,3,3,3,A,3,3 which would trigger the prompt, "Please enter a mailbox number or press 7 to dial by name." If you also have extension numbers that start with 7, they can never be directly reached. To avoid this conflict, use the Text Console to program a star prefix digit into the dialing plan. When properly configured, the star prefix dialing plan for this example triggers the prompt, " Please enter a mailbox number or press *7 to dial by name."

## PBX Dialing Plans

A PBX only allows a certain range of extension numbers. Ideally, employees’ mailbox numbers should match their extension numbers. This makes it easier for callers to remember the proper mailbox number. If the numbers do not match, and the optional NP Receptionist program is installed, you can program certain conversion factors to allow the NuPoint Voice application to match the extension with the correct mailbox number.

If the company has employees in the field who do not have regular PBX extension numbers, you can give them mailbox numbers that do not fall in the range of allowable PBX extensions, even if there are enough mailbox numbers in this range. You can reserve these extra mailboxes for future expansion of in-house staff. For example, if the PBX allows extensions 200 to 399, you can keep the dialing plan at the default setting of 3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3, and assign all field personnel mailboxes 600 through 799.

Example 2: if your dial string is 0,4,3,3,3,3,A,V,10, it is interpreted as follows:

Digit | Element | Interpretation
--- | --- | ---
1 | 0 | No Directory Numbers (DNs) start with 1.
2 | 4 | DNs starting with 2 are four digits long. For example, 2123 is valid. 212 is not.
3 4 5 6 | 3 3 3 3 | DNs starting with 3, 4, 5 and 6 are three digits long.
7 | A | DNs starting with 7 are Dial-by-Name.
8 | V | DNs starting with 8 can be any length (variable).
9 | 10 | Mailbox numbers starting with 9 are ten digits long. Valid mailbox example: 1-916-456-7777